Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Jet Set Jackson

13-11 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City. Only in Queens would a developer advertise architecture as featuring "textured manganese brick and smooth aluminum panels" and call it luxury housing. There are 54 units in this overscaled tower which looms above its neighbors. But, probably not for long. If you notice, the eastern wall of the building lacks windows, so that the small adjacent structures can easily be razed and built up to the same height as this gargantuan piece of Queens Crap. They call this building the "Echelon" to assure you that a better class of people are coming to gentrify this "blighted" area of western Queens. The idea is to make LIC look like a mini-Manhattan.

It's attitudes like those of Julia Vitiullo-Martin from the Manhattan Institute which have destroyed Long Island City. See, small frame houses = bad. Large Queens Crap like that pictured = good.

Funny, the Manhattan Institute seems to follow in the footsteps of the best planning studies ... from the Soviet Union. I guess that's what happens when rich (connected) people decide the future of poor folks (who do not have access to the levers of power). I am appalled that our elected officials did not have a public outcry over this. The principles that they speak about during elections are hollow. They do not believe in them. It is inexcusable that the press published this without comment. Is this the way that they repay the public for the freedom of the press that the people won for them? These are people's homes, these are people's lives, not just a fancy chart with pretty colors. Shame! Shame! Shame!

Spotted a piece of Queens Crap in your community?

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Italicized passages and many of the photos come from other websites. The links to these websites are provided within the posts.

Why your neighborhood is full of Queens Crap

"The difference between dishonest and honest graft: for dishonest graft one worked solely for one's own interests, while for honest graft one pursued the interests of one's party, one's state, and one's personal interests all together." - George Washington Plunkitt

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